


I’ll Be Fine

by longwhitecoats



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Comfort, Friendship is Magic, Gen, Sadness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-12
Updated: 2015-04-12
Packaged: 2018-03-22 11:55:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3727936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/longwhitecoats/pseuds/longwhitecoats
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce was the first to notice, because Bruce was that sort of person.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I’ll Be Fine

**Author's Note:**

  * For [maastrictian](https://archiveofourown.org/users/maastrictian/gifts).



Bruce was the first to notice, because Bruce was that sort of person. He took off his glasses, rubbed them clean, and then put them on. He stood up from the breakfast nook on the fortieth floor of Stark Tower and walked over to the windows to see if it happened again. It did happen again. After it did, Bruce noticed that Clint was standing next to him.

“What’s up with that?” Clint said, drinking coffee straight from the pot.

“That is such a vector for germs,” Bruce sighed. “And I have no idea what’s up with that.”

“Huh,” Clint said. They both watched the windows.

Nothing moved. Some pigeons flew past, traveling skyscraper to skyscraper.

Then Mjölnir zoomed by, followed swiftly by a blur of red and gold, and the windows of the tower shook.

“Maybe we should do something about it?” Clint said weakly.

Bruce said, “Yeah.” Then, rubbing his forehead, he added, “Get Natasha. And I have to make a call.”

“Why do we need Natasha?” Tony said, poking his head in the doorway. “Jarvis told me something was causing structural instability on floors thirty-eight through fifty. Bruce, is something other than me causing you to rub your head? _And_ we need Natasha? So this is serious, is what I’m getting out of this.”

The windows rattled. The god of thunder went roaring by, drawing pigeons helplessly along in the draft of his cape.

“Oh,” Tony said, “Thor’s upset. It’s a friendship thing. Cool. I’m great at friendship things.”

\--

“We thought maybe you could use a distraction,” Natasha said to Thor, fanning out the DVDs on the table in front of a seven-foot flat-screen tv. It was one of the more modest tvs in Stark Tower, but this measure of restraint was more than made up for by the twenty-five-foot black velvet sectional sofa that surrounded it in a horseshoe shape.

“I have never seen your quarters before, Natasha,” Thor boomed softly. His voice was scratchy and low, as if he’d been sick, and his eyes were red.

Natasha did a little side-smile. “Well, it was impressed upon me that I have the best room for watching movies with friends.” She looked at Bruce. “And I do. Because I am _friendly_.”

Bruce coughed. “We got all the movies we could remember that you liked. And, uh, Tony added a couple suggestions, even though we told him not to.”

“Those are _essential viewing_ , Bruce,” Tony yelled from the galley kitchen on the far wall, where he was heating a second pot of caramel to pour over the popcorn. “It is _unconscionable_ for someone to make it to his age without seeing the _Evil Dead_ series.”

“Please ignore him,” Bruce said. “He’s terrible at friendship. He once tried to cheer me up with a radioactive skeleton pulled from the bottom of the ocean.”

“That _worked_ ,” Tony said, bringing over two giant bowls of popcorn newly coated in glistening caramel. “You _loved_ it. You got like three articles out of it.”

Bruce tried to glare and smile at the same time and ended up making a duckface. “Two articles and a guest lecture. And the point is, it wouldn’t have worked on anyone else.”

“Right. Because I know you. And I know Thor, though admittedly I’m less up to date on his scientific interests. He has great taste in scientists, though. Foster’s a shoo-in for the Nobel any year now.” Tony put one bowl down on the table and put another directly on Thor’s lap. “All yours, man.”

“Thank you,” Thor said, and tipped the bowl up to his mouth.

They watched _Evil Dead_ , which Thor seemed to like, if the speed of his popcorn-eating was any indication. Once or twice, Natasha had to hush up Clint from ranting about how much better it was than _Cabin in the Woods_ and how Joss Whedon was way too self-involved to understand genre films, but Thor didn’t seem to notice. Then they watched _Army of Darkness_ , which Thor absolutely _loved_ (“I _told_ you,” Tony said to Bruce), and then they took a break to order pizza. Then they watched _Lilo and Stitch_ , which was one of Thor’s favorites. Bruce fell asleep on Tony and drooled gently onto his shoulder.

“Why do you think Thor likes this movie so much?” Clint whispered to Natasha as he rubbed her feet.

“A powerful alien crashlands on earth and finds a family that supports him, helps him with his problems, and encourages him to find joy in everyday things?” Natasha whispered back. “Can’t imagine why he likes it.”

Clint paused. “He’s crying.”

“I know,” Natasha said, her voice soft. “Keep rubbing.”

When the movie was over, Tony poked Bruce awake and guided him out while he blinked sleepily, and Clint started a pot of coffee. Natasha sat down next to Thor on the floor, where he’d gradually migrated during their movie marathon.

“If you wanna talk about it,” she said, “you can stay.”

Thor looked over at her, trying to smile and failing. “You are very kind,” he said.

There was a long pause. He studied his fingers. Natasha did too.

“I’ll be fine,” he said at last. “Thank you for the films.”

“Anytime,” Natasha said.

\--

Around two-thirty a.m., as Thor was starting to get cold from sitting out on the ledge of Stark Tower, he heard a soft _swish_ of the balcony door opening, and footsteps behind him.

“Sorry I’m late,” said Steve. “Mind if I join you?”

Thor looked up. Steve’s uniform was torn in several places and bloody, and some sort of green gooey crud was coagulating around the soles of his boots. He was smiling like he was glad to see Thor, which was one of the things Thor liked about Steve.

“Please, my friend,” Thor said. “I would be glad of your company.”

Steve sat. “I brought you some chocolates, too,” he said.

Thor perked up. “Oh? I am very fond of chocolate.”

“Yeah, well,” Steve said, rolling his eyes, “apparently it’s a security risk to bring food over the border or something, so customs has to clear it, yadda yadda. Anyway, it’ll be here in a few days.” His mouth twisted up regretfully. “Sorry.”

Thor smiled at him. “It was a kind thought.” Then he looked down at his hands. Then he put his face in his hands.

Gently, slowly, Steve put an arm around Thor’s shoulders. “Hey. Buddy, I don’t know what’s making you so sad. Bruce didn’t tell me when he called. But it’s okay.”

Thor shook his head. “It is not.”

Steve squeezed his shoulders meaningfully. “No, I mean, it’s okay to be upset. Natasha told me you were being really, I dunno, like you didn’t want to bother anybody. And I don’t know if that’s true, I’m sure you called Jane and—whoever. But, I mean—you don’t have to pretend to be fine around us, okay? If you’re not fine, that’s... fine.”

Thor laughed. “Natasha told me that you do not prepare your speeches in advance. She said you were a natural orator. I believe you may have deceived her on that score.”

“Oh hush,” Steve said. “The important thing is that it worked. Did it work?”

Thor closed his eyes and swallowed hard. “Yes, my friend. It did.”

“Good,” Steve said. “Then my work here is done.”

**Author's Note:**

> The Avengers watching _Lilo & Stitch_ together is an homage to [Figure Drawing](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1049213) by Thingswithwings, which is a wonderful Bruce/Steve story that I strongly suggest everyone read, because it is happiness.
> 
> Maastrictian, many hugs for you. <3


End file.
